Buongiorno, notte (2003)

Director:

Marco Bellocchio

Writers:

Anna Laura Braghetti (book) and
Paola Tavella (book) ...

Release Date:

5 September 2003 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The 1978 kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, president of the most important political party in Italy at the time, Democrazia Cristiana, as seen from the perspective of one of his assailants -- a conflicted young woman in the ranks of the Red Brigade.

Plot Keywords:

Pope | Italy | Brigate Rosse | Kidnapping | 1970s

Awards:

8 wins & 15 nominations

Cast

Maya Sansa	...	Chiara
Luigi Lo Cascio	...	Mariano
Roberto Herlitzka	...	Aldo Moro
Paolo Briguglia	...	Enzo
Pier Giorgio Bellocchio	...	Ernesto
Giovanni Calcagno	...	Primo
Giulio Bosetti	...	Paolo VI (as Giulio Stefano Bosetti)
Gianni Schicchi		(as Gianni Schicchi Gabrieli)
Carlo Castelli
Bruno Cariello	...	Segretario del Papa
Alberto Cracco	...	Medium
Emanuela Barilozzi	...	Annalisa
Roberta Spagnuolo	...	Sandra
Giovanni Cappelli	...	Un impiegato
Antonio De Matteo	...	Fratello Chiara

Also Known As:

Good Morning, Night (International: English title)

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Spain:13 | Italy:T | Australia:M | South Korea:15 | Brazil:12 | Philippines:PG-13 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15

Company:

Filmalbatros

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Near the end, when Aldo Moro walks away in the deserted street, you can see a multicolored Peace flag in the background. Those flags would decorate Italian streets only in 2003, to oppose the invasion of Iraq.

Movie Connections:

Edited from Paisà (1946)

Soundtrack:

Gloria

Alienation

The events bookending this movie are true, but the actual story is pure speculation...thus leaving the door wide open for the storytelling.

Communist Catholics are an oddity...the contradictions in that appellation alone are manifest. So what we have here is told somewhat in the manner of a Passion Play, cross-pollinated with a critique vs. defense of the Marx-Hegel "Holy Family"...the argument centers on the captive's immediate concern about execution, whereas the captors insist on demonstrating they are merciless.

The problem is, all of this seems to be going on as if there's no outside world of concern...oh, we get leakage in from TV and newspapers, but no sense that Rome is under lockdown. This ends up totally alienated from the central symbolism (Mora's body having been found precisely halfway between the respective Christian Democrats' and Italian Communist Party's headquarters). We're locked behind the writing (the stacks of books, and simultaneously, Chiara within the library), then left for dead with no spatial, political or symbolic context.

That said, there is some cleverness in the limitation placed on Chiara, who is the only one who can tell the story outside the apartment, but has a proximity barrier from the writer at the cubicle door and peephole. Upon reaching perigee, she is reduced to defiant tears. Note also how she dreams in Soviet-era propaganda films!